FIG. 1 is illustrative of the prior techniques of running in casing with a casing shoe 16 near its lower end. If later a tubular is run in and needs to be attached to the casing by expansion, the presence of cement debris in the support area on the casing where the tubular will be attached could prevent a sealed connection from being obtained. One way around that would be to deliver the cement into a shoe mounted below the point at which the liner will be attached later. Another method would be to run brushes and scrapers into the mounting location after cementing to be sure it was clean so that a good seal and support for the tubular subsequently installed can be obtained. However these techniques require significant amounts of time and create an associated cost.
The present invention protects the mounting location on the casing during cementing with a barrier sleeve that covers a recess. The barrier sleeve defines a sealed annular space that contains an incompressible material. This allows the barrier sleeve to be compliant to changes in hydrostatic pressure as the casing is lowered into place. Cementing is done through the barrier sleeve. The barrier sleeve is subsequently drilled out exposing a recess and a locating profile and optionally a sliding sleeve valve. The tubular can then be positioned accurately using the locating profile and a collet mechanism on the expansion tool and expanded in to sealing contact with the casing. Due to the recess, the drift diameter of the tubular after expansion into the recess is at least as large as the casing drift diameter. The entire tubular can be expanded to its lower end and a run in shoe at the lower end of the tubular can be retrieved and removed from the well with the swaging assembly and the running string that delivered it. The sliding sleeve in the casing shoe can be selectively opened and closed with a shifting tool run on the expansion string above the expansion tools, running tool, and the liner to be expanded. Another option is for this sliding sleeve to be located in the liner to be expanded below the upper portion that mounts in the above casing. The port opened and closed by this sliding sleeve can be used to either pump cement into the annulus or to return the wellbore fluid displaced by cement from the annulus into the casing string. When the sliding sleeve is in the casing shoe, to allow for fluid flow between the outside of this port and the annulus below the shoe after the shoe has been cemented with the string to which it is attached an additional outer sleeve is run on the outside of the recess sleeve. This outer sleeve is connected at its lower end to the inner barrier sleeve via a guide nose. The flow path between the outside of the ports and the annulus is opened when the nose is drilled out and under reamed. A cement retainer device is to be located at the bottom of the string preventing cement pumped into the annulus from entering into the expanded liner due to density differences. This retainer device can be the location from which cement is pumped into the annulus or where the wellbore fluid displaced by the cement is returned from the annulus to the inside of the casing string. The cement retainer can be drilled out in a subsequent trip into the hole. These advantages and others of the present invention will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art from a review of the description of the preferred embodiment and the claims that appear below.